Fruits and nuts

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014

Apple pie

It must be the season, but there’s been a ton of stuff on apples on the interwebs recently. Here’s a little sampler:

Problems with Kazakhstan’s apples.
Problems with Britain’s apples.
Cambridge has a solution for those, though.
Solutions, actually.
And then there’s Dan Bussey‘s way.
And Rowan Jacobsen‘s. (He of the Apple Renaissance.) Which basically means documenting every last variety you can find.
They can then all — or the ones you can still find — go into the Seed Savers Exchange collection, say.
I’ll drink to that!
And a teaser…

October 27, 2014October 27, 2014

Brainfood: Filipino rice synonyms, Jatropha breeding, Polish oats, Amazonian peppers, Wild lentils, Indian pigeonpea, Russian peas, Pulse markers, Wild pollinators, Phenotyping platforms, Almonds & peaches, Cerrado roads, Arboreta conservation

Multiplex SSR-PCR analysis of genetic diversity and redundancy in the Philippine rice (Oryza sativa L.) germplasm collection. 427 rice accessions in the national collection with similar names resolve to about 30 unique profiles. I think. The abstract is a little hard to follow, and that’s all I have access to.
Quantitative genetic parameters of agronomic and quality traits in a global germplasm collection reveal excellent breeding perspectives for Jatropha curcas L. 375 genotypes, 7 locations and 3 years get you quite enough data to plan a decent breeding programme.
Studies on genetic variation within old Polish cultivars of common oat. Forward into the past.
Morphoagronomic peppers no gender pungent Capsicum spp. Amazonia. Actually nothing to do with gender. That’s a mis-translation of “genus,” if you can believe it. Paper basically says that Amazonian peppers are really variable, which is not as interesting as it might have been.
Global Wild Annual Lens Collection: A Potential Resource for Lentil Genetic Base Broadening and Yield Enhancement. The core collection of wild annuals (which is actually a somewhat novel concept) comes mainly from Turkey and Syria, and it’s got diversity that’s not in the cultigen.
Pigeon pea Genetic Resources and Its Utilization in India, Current Status and Future Prospects. Indian genebank evaluates the ICRISAT core and mini-core. Then does some mutation breeding :)
Molecular genetic diversity of the pea (Pisum sativum L.) from the Vavilov Research Institute collection detected by the AFLP analysis. Molecular data does not correspond with subspecies nor ecogeographic groupings. Back to the drawing board.
Characterization of microsatellite markers, their transferability to orphan legumes and use in determination of genetic diversity among chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars. Chickpea SSRs are ok for other, less studied, crops too.
From research to action: enhancing crop yield through wild pollinators. Go wild.
Integration of phenotyping and genetic platforms for a better understanding of wheat performance under drought. You really need managed environment facilities. Didn’t a paper in Brainfood last week say what you needed was a network of field sites? I guess you need both.
Wild almonds gone wild: revisiting Darwin’s statement on the origin of peaches. He was not entirely wrong.
The role of roadsides in conserving Cerrado plant diversity. 70% of species is not bad, I guess. No word on whether that includes wild peanuts, but I suspect yes.
Do living ex situ collections capture the genetic variation of wild populations? A molecular analysis of two relict tree species, Zelkova abelica and Zelkova carpinifolia. Yes and no. But this is in botanic gardens and arboreta, what about seedbanks? The cerrado people want to know…

October 26, 2014October 29, 2014

Nibbles: Wonder Bread, Cassava sex, Languages and biodiversity, Wild Musa, Bronze Age musings, New Indian rice varieties, Improved breeds in Kenya, GMOs in China, Organic vision, Foreign food, Publicity, Nutrition advice & indicators, Ethiopian seed banks, Zimbabwe millet, Agroforestry, MSB legume collection, Demon paywalls, CIMMYT seed, Tempting apple

The industrial sliced loaf as racist fantasy.
Bill Gates talks dirty. About cassava, settle down.
Where the wild things are is where the languages are, but why? And where are they endangered?
This new Indian wild banana is probably a bit endangered.
The past may be a foreign country, but they got Street View there too.
Blockbuster rice in India. (But how energy-efficient is it?)
And potentially blockbuster livestock breeds in Kenya.
China goes GMO. Which of these?
Maybe they should read this vision for organic farming? You know, just for completeness?
Have a food adventure! Just perhaps not in China.
FAO and National Geographic have a food security adventure together. For more stuff like this, no doubt…
Eat more plants, and ditch the junk food. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Ok, for the more complicated, nerdy approach, there’s always fancy indicators.
Ethiopia’s community seed banks.
I bet there are some in Zimbabwe…
African Development Bank makes a bet on agroforestry. Maybe health is why? There’s more that one reason…
Gotta be strategic with your legume collecting.
Want conservation science to translate into impact? Don’t publish behind a paywall.
CIMMYT earns its keep.
Build a better apple, and you won’t be able to keep the journalists away.

October 20, 2014October 20, 2014

Brainfood: Shea diversity, Weedy rice, Old barley, Grassland diversity, Afrikaner cattle, Sudanese baobab, FGR review, Small farmers, Ecological pest management, Andean ag changes, European soil biodiversity, Durum adaptation, Agrobodiversity indicators

Genetic diversity in shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa subspecies nilotica) ethno-varieties in Uganda assessed with microsatellite markers. Three geographic populations revealed by SSRs, not much related to the folk classification.
Malaysian weedy rice shows its true stripes: wild Oryza and elite rice cultivars shape agricultural weed evolution in Southeast Asia. The weed is caught in the middle and swings both ways.
Farmers without borders—genetic structuring in century old barley (Hordeum vulgare). Nordic barley structured latitudinally, with lots more variation within landrace accessions than now, according to historical specimens.
The Agrodiversity Experiment: three years of data from a multisite study in intensively managed grasslands. Does increasing plant diversity in intensively managed grassland communities increase their resource use efficiency? No idea, but here’s the data from a huge multi-site experiment. Go crazy.
Genetic diversity in selected stud and commercial herds of the Afrikaner cattle breed. It’s doing just fine, genetically, despite recent declines in numbers.
The African baobab (Adansonia digitata, Malvaceae): Genetic resources in neglected populations of the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Maybe a little more variation in homesteads compared to the wild. Maybe.
Seeing the trees as well as the forest: The importance of managing forest genetic resources. The first State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources and the first Global Plan of Action for the Conservation, Sustainable Use and Development of Forest Genetic Resources summarized: exchange, test in common gardens, and be clever with genetics, in breeding, management and restoration.
Are small family farms a societal luxury good in wealthy countries? Rich countries don’t mind inefficient farms because they look nice.
DIVECOSYS: Bringing together researchers to design ecologically-based pest management for small-scale farming systems in West Africa. Where do I sign up?
Ecosystem governance in a highland village in Peru: Facing the challenges of globalization and climate change. Big Dairy doing for Andean crops.
Intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity across Europe. What they said.
The climate of the zone of origin of Mediterranean durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) landraces affects their agronomic performance. 4 main climatic zones, accounting for up to 30% of variation in important evaluation traits. FIGS, anyone?
Indicators for the on-farm assessment of crop cultivar and livestock breed diversity: a survey-based participatory approach. And only 5 of them too!

October 18, 2014

Nibbles: Georgian kitchen garden, Italian citrus history, Domestication infographics, AVRDC, Zambian nutrition policy, Camel-keeping, ESA states its case, Making lunch

Podcast double: Georgian kitchen gardens (with pix) and Italian citrus.
Domestication infographics are now officially a thing.
Feeding the world with vegetable research, courtesy of AVRDC. Need to register, alas.
Zambia biofortifies. Maybe they didn’t register for the above.
Camels as biocultural artifacts.
European Seed Association breaks down the tumultuous last 18 months of the European seed sector.
“It takes more than 40 different species to make a simple lunch…”